5 Effective Instructional Strategies for Teachers: A Complete List

They allow students to showcase their knowledge and course-correct on their own when need be. Effectively, they equip students with the tools and skills they need to become independent, strategic learners.

But these benefits are not restricted to just the students—teachers also stand to gain. For instance, effective instructional strategies allow you, the teacher, to better track and assess your students’ performance and provide the necessary interventions.

Given all this, it’s clear that an effective instructional strategy is a must-have in your classroom. But then, how do you choose the most effective strategy for yourself and your students?

Today, we explore five incredible instructional strategies, why they are effective, and how you can apply them to benefit your students. This way, you’ll:

• Better understand what instructional strategies are, and the different strategies you can use to teach more effectively
• Have a deeper understanding of how instructional strategies impact your students’ overall learning experience
• Understand how to implement instructional strategies to better engage with your students
• Be better prepared to guide your students towards success no matter the classroom setting

Strategy #1 - Direct Instruction

This is likely the most commonly used instructional strategy. It’s highly teacher-directed and includes techniques such as explicit teaching, lectures, and demonstration.

Direct instruction is very effective at providing fundamental information and building step-by-step skills. It’s an ideal strategy to introduce other instructing methods and involve your students in actively building knowledge.

Although direct instruction is considered one of the easier strategies to use, you’ll find that a productive direct instruction strategy is often a bit more complicated.

Common teaching methods associated with direct instruction include:

• Lectures - Considered the traditional instructional method, lectures are a valuable part of any teacher’s repertoire—well, provided they are not overused, especially when another approach will be more effective. With proper delivery, lectures can inspire, boost imagination, and foster curiosity. Note, however, that because lectures are teacher-centered, and student participation is mostly passive, their attention span may be limited.
• Didactic questions - Didactic questions are usually factual and often ask “what,” “when,” “where,” and “how” questions. They are an effective way to test your student’s comprehension and recall, and determine the extent to which lesson objectives were achieved. For maximum effectiveness, include an occasional “why” and “what if” question to promote insightful and creative answers.

Further to these, additional direct instruction methods include; demonstrations, explicit teaching, compare and contrast, structured overview, drill, and practice.

Related: How to Improve Student Achievement with Positive Action

Strategy #2 - Indirect Instruction

Indirect instruction is a student-centered strategy that contrasts and complements direct instruction. It includes techniques such as concept formation and attainment, reflective discussion, guided inquiry, and problem-solving.

With this instruction strategy, your role as a teacher shifts from instructor to supporter, facilitator, and resource person. Here, your goal is to create a learning environment that provides opportunities for learner involvement and to provide feedback when need be.

Being a student-centric instruction strategy, this method requires a high level of student involvement in the learning process. It taps into students' curiosity and encourages them to actively engage in problem-solving.

Indirect instruction is also freeing, because it inspires learners to explore different possibilities and outcomes without the fear of giving incorrect answers. It fosters creativity and the development of interpersonal skills, along with a deeper comprehension of the material under study.

While indirect instruction can be used in almost every lesson, this strategy is most effective when:

• The process is just as important as the outcome
• There is more than one appropriate answer
• Life-long learning capability is desired
• You desire an analytical outcome
• You desire intrinsic motivation

Expert Tip: For maximum benefits, you may need to pre-teach the vital processes required to achieve the intended learning outcome.

Additionally, the outcome can be unpredictable because you have to relinquish some control as the teacher—as such indirect instruction may not be the best at providing detailed information or when instant recall is desired.

Now that we’ve covered both direct and indirect instruction, here’s a quick table comparing both strategies for a better understanding of how you can use the contrasting techniques to complement each other:

• Direct Instruction

• The objective is to teach rules, facts, and step-by-step processes.

• Lessons begin with a review of previous work.

• New content is introduced in small steps with explanations and examples.

• Feedback is based on whether an answer is correct or incorrect.

• Includes weekly and monthly reviews with re-teaching of unlearned content.

• Indirect Instruction

• The objective is to teach abstractions, concepts, and patterns.

• Lessons begin with advance organizers that allow for concept expansion.

• Focus is placed on the learners' responses with the aim to refine generalizations.

• Feedback may be inspired by the students’ own experiences and interests.

• Students actively participate in evaluation with discussions to firm up concepts.

Strategy #3 - Interactive Instruction

As the name implies, interactive instruction is social and relies on discussion and sharing among the learners. The hypothesis behind interactive instruction is that learning happens through interactive communication of knowledge and that this exchange can happen in different forms.

Consequently, interactive instruction is ideal when you need your students to develop their social skills and improve their ability to organize thoughts and form rational arguments.

Interactive instruction employs different instruction methods, including:

• Group discussions - Knowledge is more than correct answers and is gained through varied methods, including creative inquiry and active participation by learners. Group discussions in the classroom help create a positive environment where students can participate and actively learn.

• Cooperative learning - Cooperative learning consists of groups of two to six members who are interdependent in achieving the group learning goals. Although the academic task is of primary importance, students also learn the importance of collaborative work.

Expert Tip: With interactive instruction methods, outline parameters such as the topics, conference time, group size and reporting techniques. Additionally, success will depend on your ability to structure the dynamics of the different groups.

Related: 20 Evidence-Based Social Skills Activities and Games for Kids

Strategy #4 - Experimental Learning

Experimental learning is an inductive, student-centric, and activity-oriented instruction strategy. It encourages personal reflection and deduction upon which a learner forms and applies what they’ve learned to other contexts.

Experimental learning occurs over five distinct phases:

• Experiencing - the learner participates in a learning activity
• Sharing - the learner shares their reactions and observations
• Analyzing - the learner examines their observations for findings
• Inferring - the learner draws valuable insights from their analysis
• Applying - the learner uses the learnings in new situations

In experimental learning, emphasis is placed on the process rather than the outcome. This is why you can use experimental learning as an instructional strategy in various scenarios in and out of the classroom.

You can also make use of experimental instruction resources such as:

• Field trips and observations
• Class experiments
• Model building
• Simulations
• Surveys

Strategy #5 - Independent Study

Independent study refers to various instructional methods specifically designed to foster individual student initiative and self-improvement.

The end goal of independent study for a student is:

• To make connections between concepts and real-life applications
• To gain the ability to gather, analyze, and report information
• To gain an in-depth understanding of specific topics

Independent study can include learning individually, with other students, or as a group. It can be initiated by either the student or teacher, but guidance by a teacher is encouraged for optimal results.

Regular student-teacher interaction, whether as a formally structured conference or casual conversation, will help you provide better direction and reinforce essential skills.

Some tools and methods to exercise independent study include:

• Research projects
• Assigned questions
• Reports and essays
• Homework
• Journals

Related: 6 Essential Ways to Instill a Positive Self-Concept

Incorporate an Effective Instructional Strategy Into Your Classroom

An effective instructional strategy will help your students understand course material better and encourage critical thinking when applied correctly. The strategy will also help you work out more effective lesson plans and track your students' progress through each concept.

Positive Action provides you with the resources and tools to incorporate effective instructional strategies into your classroom.

"We insist that our teachers use the program because it helps us with our major tasks: improving our attendance, bettering our test scores, and decreasing our disciplinary referrals.." - Saunya Ingersoll

Our curriculum comes with actionable steps to facilitate seamless integration. It fits in any learning environment and is easy to implement.

Positive Action also provides you with everything you need to get started and set you up for success. Our comprehensive system makes it easy to integrate into your classroom and unlock your students’ full potential.

“At a Positive Action school, I could count on receiving respect and attention from students…I knew that the students would do their best.” - Kristin McMillan

Contact us for help getting started or check out our instructional curriculums and unlock your students' full potential.